Class: Publishing and Marketing Your Book
Speaker: Ann Aubitz
Saturday, October 8, 2022
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Are you ready to publish your books, but you don’t know what the options there are to publish them? Then this class is for you. We will go through the three major publishing Options self-publishing, Hybrid Publishing, and Traditional Publishing. We will also talk about marketing your book at the different stages of publishing.
Ann Aubitz is the co-owner and Publisher of Kirk House Publishers and FuzionPress. After years of reading everything she could get her hands on, she decided to help others achieve their dream of becoming an author. Her mission is to help authors achieve their dreams by seeing their book in print.
Class: The Right Social Engagement at the Right Time
Speaker: Amy Jauman
Saturday, October 8, 2022
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The importance of a clear marketing and communications plan can't be overestimated. It is how you speak with current and future readers, how your competitors understand how your work differs from theirs, how an agent knows if you’re a fit for their publishers, and how you identify new and innovative ways to keep up with an ever-changing market.
In this session, we’ll talk about:
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·crafting a plan for Identifying and segmenting your core audience
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·finding what social media content your customers perceive as valuable
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·determining how your readers would like to engage with you online
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·creating content that informs, educates, and inspires your readers
We’ll also talk about the tactical considerations associated with creating a communications plan and market maps that will help ensure branding consistency across platforms and even across genres (if you write for multiple audiences). Join us to jumpstart or overhaul your marketing plan – all levels of experience are welcome!
Dr. Amy Jauman, SMS, CDMP, is a Director of University Partnerships at Ruffalo Noel Levitz, an international speaker and published author. Her books include three textbooks, two of which were published through academic publishers, five ebooks, and multiple books as a ghostwriter. She is currently researching a book on the topic of how media has affected crime since the early 1900s. In addition to her two social media and human resource certifications, Amy has a master’s degree in experiential education and a doctorate in organization development.
Amy is also a university professor and true crime blogger who enjoys spending as much time as possible with her rescue beagle and two black cats.
Class: Best Practices for Public Speaking About Your Book
Speaker: Jennifer Fernjack
Saturday, October 8, 2022
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Given all the nuances that come with public speaking, what are some things to consider? For example, what can you do if your mouth gets dry from feeling nervous? How can you pitch an idea to a potential host so they want you as a speaker, as opposed to just you wanting to be their speaker? How can you proactively address a Q&A session where people aren’t asking very many questions? Please join Jennifer Fernjack as she shares tricks of the trade and things she has learned along the way.
Jennifer Fernjack was raised in Cloquet, MN and currently resides in Spring Park, MN. She has a BA degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. Due to a medical scare in 2016, she has an enhanced appreciation for the power and strength of emotional grit. Her insightful messages have been heard at places such as the Mayo Clinic, Gilda’s Club, the Neuroscience Center in St. Paul and more. She is currently writing a book about emotional grit as well.
Class: Outlining or Storyboards, Oh My! Find a Structure That Works for You
Speaker: Judith Brenner
Saturday, October 8, 2022
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Outlining or Storyboards, Oh My! Find a Structure That Works for You/ Judith Brenner
Don’t throw spaghetti on the wall or the page! Whether you are writing a memoir, a self-help book or a fiction piece, the structure of your work keeps readers from feeling lost and helps the author stay on track to reach the finish line. If you have a first draft and don’t know if it is holding together, or you have ideas and can’t get them organized so they flow, this class is for you. We will explore outlining, storyboards, and plot structures that work. You choose what works for you. By the end of this session, you’ll have an understanding of structure. Afterward, commit your ideas to ink, pencil, typed text lists, sketches, post-it notes or glue. It can be a two-page outline, a whiteboard, or a detailed scroll. Whatever you choose, you’ll be stuck no more! #writingcraft
BIO
Judith Brenner is an author of The Moments Between Dreams, a novel, five non-fiction educational books, and a short story contributor to WOW’s Minnesota Stories anthology. She is an avid reader and a book editor for authors at Beaver’s Pond Press and for WOW members. Judith founded Creative Lakes Media, LLC, a publishing company for a national trade publication with a global following. Her novel recently ranked in the top 100 Amazon category of Women’s Literary Criticism and was a semi-finalist in a 2021 Ember Chamber Review contest. She raised two daughters, a future nurse, and a future CPA, and rides the rollercoaster of life with her husband of 30 years. In October, she’ll be featured on the History Author Show and History Through Fiction national podcasts. You can listen to an interview about writing craft on past episodes of Between the Lines Dialogue with Susan Wingate, and watch an interview about the themes of her novel reflecting domestic abuse and the polio epidemic on Where Woman Talk TV. She penned this article, “Fiction That Makes You Think.”
Email: creativelakes@outlook.com
Author website: JudithFBrenner.com
Editing website: CreativeLakesMedia.com
Class: Editing for Authors
Speaker: Connie Anderson
Saturday, October 8
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Editing for Authors
“Self-editing” is what you can do to fix your story/article/manuscript before you submit it—or send to a professional editor. This includes what to watch for, such as word usage (or overuse), punctuation and grammar, content flow, and completeness. Learn how to catch your own mistakes or common misuses, tricks of search/find/fix on a Word doc, and much more. Editing most genres (both fiction and non-fiction), Connie makes sure that the author writes to his or her intended market. Editing from the reader’s point of view ensures that the book’s message is clear, concise and accurate. Self-editing will save you money because time is money.
Connie Anderson has been editing both non-fiction and general fiction books for over 35 years. She believes that the right editor can help make your book the best possible. Editing from the reader’s point of view ensures that the book’s message is clear, concise and accurate to any reader. She has written three books, In My Next Life I Want to be My Dog; When Polio Came Home: How Ordinary People Overcame Extraordinary Challenges; and The “I” of a Woman: How to Succeed in Life with Humor and Grace,” available on Amazon.com.
952-835-4731
Class: It’s a Mystery to Me
Speakers: Mystery Writer Panel
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Mystery Panel topic:
It’s a Mystery to Me: Authors describe the writing process – getting that first idea, creating characters, doing the research, and the daily writing schedule that gets it done.
TWIN CITIES SISTERS IN CRIME BIOS
CHRISTINE HUSOM is a national best-selling author from Buffalo. She pens the suspenseful Winnebago County Mysteries, and the cozy, but not too cozy, Snow Globe Shop Mysteries where bad guys demonstrate not everyone is "Minnesota Nice." She has stories in six anthologies and co-edited one. Her latest titles are Death To The Dealers, the Midwest Book Award Finalist, and Frosty The Dead Man. Husom trained with the St. Paul Police Department and served with the Wright County Sheriff. She's a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and active with the Twin Cities chapter. She loves meeting readers at a variety of venues and events. www.christinehusom.com.
BARBARA DEESE grew up in Anoka, MN, where, surrounded by books, she developed a keen appreciation for fine writing and sharp wit. Reading under her covers in the beam of her flashlight, crime-solvers like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew came to life. Today, as the author of the No Ordinary Women mysteries—four in the series so far—she writes about a group of middle-aged book club ladies, all mystery lovers, who fall a little too easily into sleuthing around. She also has stories in three anthologies, and is co-editor of the latest, Minnesota Not So Nice: Eighteen Tales of Bad Behavior. Her early interest in crime (on the right side, of course) led her to become one of only thirty-three female air marshals in the U.S at the time. She lives in Bloomington with her husband and two cats. www.noordinarywomenmysteries.com
JULIE HOLMES started her writing career in elementary school, where her first book starred a young girl and unicorns. She now writes a variety of mysteries, from suspense with a touch of romance to police procedurals with a brush of extrasensory, with forays into fantasy and science fiction. A former aircraft mechanic for a commuter airline, she uses her experience as fodder for the Sierra Bauer mystery series featuring a female aircraft mechanic. Besides her current career as a technical writer for a software company, she is a devotee of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which she uses to draft (or re-draft) her upcoming books. She is member of Mystery Writers of America, the national Sisters in Crime (SinC) writers' organization, and is the current president of the Twin Cities SinC chapter. She hails from south-central Minnesota, where she lives on a small hobby farm with her husband and a menagerie of pets. https://julieholmesauthor.com
MARLENE CHABOT, author from Anoka County, started her steady reading appetite at a young age due to the variety of reading material at home as well as the weekly school visits to the Columbia Heights Public Library, but it wasn’t until she found books like Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames that she became a fan of mysteries. A semi-finalist in a Neoverse competition, Marlene’s employment positions such as teacher, department store security guard, human resource assistant for a publishing company, history lab instructor for Anoka County Parks, and others have enhanced her writing career. She is the author of three amateur sleuth Mary Malone novels: Death at the Bar X Ranch, Death of the Naked Lady, and Death of the Pickle King; three private investigator Matt Malone novels: Detecting the Fatal Connection, North Dakota Neighbor, and Mayhem With a Capital M; A personal anthology—Danger, Intrigue, Murder, and More. She also has stories in six other anthologies and wrote stories for Her Voice magazine for ten years. https://www.marlenechabotbooks.com
Class: Basics of Writing Screenplays
Speaker: Lynn Garthwaite
Saturday, October 8, 2022
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Class: Selling Books with Amazon Ads
Basics of Writing Screenplays
What do producers look for when they consider screenplays to buy? This class will talk about format, the three-act structure, dialogue, action descriptions, and what to do when your screenplay is finished. There will be tips on some of the “industry standards” that producers expect to see in your script.
Lynn Garthwaite is the author of eleven books and seven screenplays. She is currently under contract with Voyage Media for an adapted screenplay she wrote for her novel Starless Midnight.
Selling Books with Amazon Ads
Amazon ads really work – but there are some behind-the-scenes strategies that can help.
Get the basics in this class, and then let the amazon algorithms work for you.
Lynn Garthwaite is the author of eleven books and seven screenplays. She is currently under contract with Voyage Media for an adapted screenplay she wrote for her novel Starless Midnight.